Field trips

IMA2018 is excited to announce five exciting field trips as part of the IMA2018 program.

Registration for all field trips will be through the IMA2018 registration site which is now live. For more information on how to register for the field trips and complete your meeting registration please click here.

Pre-meeting field trips

The following itinerary is provisional only and is subject to change. Costings are based on most participants being willing to twin-share accommodation, although there is limited scope for single rooms. A minimum of 25 participants is required for this excursion to proceed, so if you are planning to participate you must register before June 30. The excursion will be cancelled if this minimum is not achieved.

Centred on the world-famous golden cities of Ballarat and Bendigo, the excursion will proceed via the historic goldfields town of Maldon (where Australia’s first new mineral, maldonite, was found), followed by a surface tour of the operating gold mine at Costerfield, before overnight accommodation in Bendigo. Day 2 will start with a visit to the Central Deborah tourist mine in Bendigo, going underground to see gold in its typical quartz reef and black slate setting, then we proceed to Moliagul to visit the monument to the famous Welcome Stranger, considered to be the world’s largest alluvial nugget. From there we head towards Ballarat, with an opportunity to stroll through historic alluvial goldfields near Amherst, where fossickers with metal detectors are finding gold; a short climb to the summit of the Mt Greenock volcano and a view over the deep-lead country of the Central Highlands, before heading to Ballarat for the evening through the beautifully preserved goldfield towns of Clunes and Creswick. Accommodation and dinner in Ballarat will be at Sovereign Hill Tourist Park. On the last morning we visit the Ballarat Gold Museum before returning to Melbourne through Buninyong, nestled at the foot of the Mt Buninyong volcano.

Please note: this tour will depart from and return to Melbourne, Victoria.

Phillip Island — a window into Victoria’s geological history

Date: 12 August 2018Cost: AUD 180.00 per person

Phillip Island’s geology is a microcosm of Victoria’s major igneous rock types. Devonian granite, Cenozoic basaltic lavas and Cambrian mafic volcanics (‘greenstones’) are exposed along the island’s picturesque southern coastline. All are accessible by beach walks and the excursion will visit a selection of the sites, from Cape Woolamai in the east to The Knobbies in the west. Note that the itinerary no longer includes the famous penguin parade. This is best visited separately by booking through the meeting’s designated tour operator.

Please note: this tour will depart from and return to Melbourne, Victoria. Final itinerary is subject to weather conditions.

Post-meeting field trips

Melbourne’s northern suburbs extend onto a lava plain dotted with Cenozic volcanoes from around 3 to 7 million years old. The excursion visits the Organ Pipes National Park, an operating scoria quarry near Toolern Vale, the complex volcano of Mt Gisborne, the mysterious Hanging Rock trachyte dome, and returns to Melbourne via Mt Macedon.

Please note: this tour will depart from and return to Melbourne, Victoria. Final itinerary is subject to weather conditions.

Volcanoes of Western Victoria

Date: 19-21 August 2018Cost: AUD 750.00 per person – CLOSED

The Western Victorian Volcanic Province preserves lava flows, scoria cones and maar craters dating from around 4.5 million years to several tens of thousands of years ago. Geologists postulate that a new eruption could occur at any time. The excursion visits some of the best-known localities, including the spectacular maar craters of Lake Purrumbete, Lake Bullenmerri and Lake Gnotuk near Camperdown; the complex volcano of Mt Rouse at Penshurst; the quarry at the scoria volcano of Mt Shadwell at Mortlake, where abundant mantle xenoliths can be collected; the region’s largest scoria crater at Mt Noorat; features of the young lava flow from Mt Napier near Hamilton, including the lava tubes at the Byaduk Caves and the mysterious tumuli at Wallacedale; and finishing with a tour of the magnificent lake-filled maar crater of Tower Hill at Koroit. The return route is via the Great Ocean Road, with stops at some of the famous lookouts over the so-called ‘shipwreck coast’.

Walks of varying degrees of difficulty are planned at most localities, but with allowances for different levels of fitness. Weather will probably be a factor, so wet-weather gear and sturdy footwear are essential. There will be abundant opportunities to observe a variety of native birds and animals, as well as experience the rich indigenous and European history of the region. Accommodation will be in comfortable motels in the beautiful historic country towns of Camperdown and Port Fairy.

Intended participants should ensure they have their own travel insurance.

Please note: this tour will depart from and return to Melbourne, Victoria.

South Australia

Date: 19-24 August 2018Cost: AUD 3,600.00 per person – CLOSED

The Northern Flinders Ranges exposes a Mesoproterozoic, U-Th-K enriched basement inlier at the boundary between the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Adelaide Geosyncline and the Mesozoic-Tertiary Lake Frome Embayment.

This extraordinary field trip will include visits to the following sites:

Arkaroola including a trip to the Silllers Lookout, at the terminus of the Ridgetop Track for spectacular views over the Lake From Embayment and Beverley U mining operations.

Mount Gee: Mount Gee was entered on the Register of the National Estate in 1982 due to its “spectacular mass of quartz crystal and vughular, lining the cavities of crush breccias. It is part on an exceptionally well preserved Paleozoic continental epithermal system, that also is associated with REE and uranium mineralization (mined early on as a source of radium).

Paralana Fault: neotectonics and mineralization (Cu-Au-U) along this major fault. Remnant hydrothermal activity at the radiogenically heated Paralana hot springs.

Brachina Gorge Geological Trail – a section across the Neoproterozoic to the Cambrian. See Ediacaran fossils and the Tsunami associated with the Acraman meteorite impact, and walk on the Proterozoic – Cambian boundary.

Please note: this tour will depart from and return to Adelaide, South Australia. Travel to and from South Australia is at the expense of the attendee. The cost of the field trip only includes travel within the field trip. A more detailed itinerary will be available closer to the field trip start date.

Minerals of Western Tasmania

Date: 20–24 August 2018Cost: AUD $1250.00 per person – FULLY BOOKED

Western Tasmania is a highly scenic, wooded and mountainous area which includes a highly deformed belt of rocks including MesoProterozoic to Cainozoic sediments, ophiolites, volcanics and granites. Mineralisation is prolific and diverse, and includes silver-lead-zinc, copper, gold, tin-tungsten, iron and PGE deposits, some world famous. The trip hopes to include visits to:

The Kara magnetite-scheelite skarn deposit

The Mt Bischoff tin mine

Stichtite-chromite deposits at Dundas

The Dundas crocoite mines

Some of these sites will include opportunities for collecting interesting minerals, including crocoite.

Note that there may be some walking involved, and probably cold wet weather conditions at times.

Please note: Travel to and from Tasmania is at the expense of the attendee. The cost of the field trip only includes travel within the field trip. The field trip will depart from Hobart, Australia in the morning of Monday 20 August 2018 and will return to Hobart, Australia in the evening of Friday 24 August 2018.A more detailed itinerary will be available closer to the field trip start date.

Registration for all field trips will be through the IMA2018 registration site which is now live. For more information on how to register for the field trips and complete your meeting registration please click here.

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